The blood banana (''Musa acuminata'' var. ''zebrina''), is a
variety of the wild banana ''
Musa acuminata
''Musa acuminata'' is a species of banana native to South Asia, Southern Asia, its range comprising the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Many of the modern edible dessert bananas are derived from this species, although some are hybrids wi ...
'' native to
Sumatra
Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. The blood banana is an
ornamental plant
Ornamental plants or ''garden plants'' are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars th ...
, named for the dark red patches on its leaves, though its small-seeded fruits are also edible. It grows 6' to 8' tall in the wild, but is well-adapted to container growing and can be maintained at 3' to 5'. It grows best in full or partial sun and is hardy in zones 9 - 11.
Taxonomy and nomenclature
The blood banana is a variety of the wild banana species ''Musa acuminata'', one of the two ancestors of modern edible bananas. It was once classified as separate species under the now invalid names (
synonyms
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...
) ''Musa zebrina'' and ''Musa sumatrana''.
It was also sometimes incorrectly classified as a cultivar. The variety is not accepted by some sources, including the
World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (usually abbreviated to WCSP) was an "international collaborative programme that provides the latest peer reviewed and published opinions on the accepted scientific names and synonyms of selected p ...
, which regards it as part of the nominate subspecies of ''Musa acuminata'', ''M. acuminata'' subsp. ''acuminata''.
The blood banana is also known as the red banana tree, though it should not be confused with the
red banana
Red bananas are a group of varieties of bananas with reddish-purple skin. Some are smaller and plumper than the common Cavendish banana, others much larger. Ripe, raw red bananas have a flesh that is creamy to light pink. They are also softe ...
cultivar
A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...
. Other
common name
In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often con ...
s in
English include seeded red banana, Sumatra ornamental banana, and maroon-variegated banana plant. They are also known as in
Spanish, () in
Japanese, () in
Thai, and in
Vietnamese.
Description
Blood bananas are characterized by dark red patches of variable sizes on their dark green leaves. Their
pseudostems are characteristically very slender. They bear small, slender fruits filled with grape-like seeds.
Distribution
Blood bananas are native to
Java
Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. They are notable for being one of the earliest banana subspecies to be spread by humans out of
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
. Introduced westward to
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
, they became the ancestors for the genetically distinct and commercially important
East African Highland bananas (Mutika/Lujugira subgroup of the
AAA group).
It is probably the only seeded banana to ever be introduced into
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
before European contact. It is known as the in
Hawaiian, though the name is also applied to the species ''
Musa balbisiana
''Musa balbisiana'', also known simply as plantain, is a wild-type species of banana. It is one of the ancestors of modern cultivated bananas, along with '' Musa acuminata''.
Description
It grows lush leaves in clumps with a more upright habit ...
'', which was introduced later on.
Gallery
Image:Musa sumatrana2.jpg, Essentially unpatterned young plant at Longwood Gardens
Image:Musa sumatrana (Red Banana Tree).jpg, Closeup of a strongly patterned leaf
image:Musa sumatrana1.jpg, Inflorescence
In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...
See also
*
Banana
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...
*
Banana Cultivar Groups
*
East African Highland bananas
References
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q4927783, from2=Q50906709
Bananas